Novel idea? How to fit eco shower head (2 Viewers)

[TobyQuest]

Hi all,

I want to save water.
My standard shower uses around 10 litres per minute. I want to halve that.
I bought several eco shower heads, however when i turn the tap on, the gas for the water heater cuts out so i have only cold showers.
If i turn the kitchen tap on at the same time then the water stays hot, but its an obvious waste of water.

So is the gas cutting out because the pump I have is too strong, or does the heater also need a certain flow rate in order to heat the water. It has a couple of knobs, one to adjust the gas and another to adjust how hot the water is. Never really figured it out.

One idea i had if i cant get to the bottom of it is to recirculate half the water coming into the shower back into the water tank. Pic below, welcome your feedback on that idea as well.

 

[PaulyP]

Seems a lot of faff to save water, turn shower on - get wet - turn shower off, soap up then turn water on to rinse off, uses the minimum amount of water.

 

[Jev88]

Do you have a tankless heater?

Best way to save water in shower is have a trigger shower head - get temp right and shit off whilst actually washing. Only turn on to wash suds away.

 

[Brains]

10 liters a minute !!
That sounds massive, more like a domestic power shower.

We have a 20 litre hot water tank and can easily get two decent showers out of one heating.
With only one person showering I have yet to run out of hot water

I also have a 8 litre pump up portable shower (type used for washing dogs, humans or spraying roses) which will give at least a 5 minute shower on one fill

I think you should be looking at a system that delivers about one litre a minute.

 

[Orion]

The knob on the heater to control how hot the water is would be a simple throttling device to restrict the flow - less flow the hotter it gets, the more flow it will be cooler. The ‘eco’ shower head is more than likely restricting the flow beyond the lower limit of the heater and the overheat device is cutting in to prevent damage to the unit.

This is something we come across all the time but with electric showers in tenanted properties. The desire to save water results in a damaged shower and, even if within the warranty period, the manufacturer doesn’t want to know as the shower has been adapted away from their spec.

Maybe change the way you use the shower as others have suggested.

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[TobyQuest]

Hi

Im already showering by turning the water on an off between rinsing etc. The issue is not wanting to drive overloaded carrying around loads of water but being able to remain off - grid for periods of time.
So its back to the original conundrum, I will experiment with the different flow rates.

SO does the water heater have a minimum gas flow rate? I saw these smaller pumps and thought if I install one of these the water flow would be less which is a good step, but maybe the water heater would have an issue with less water flow?

 

[chaser]

I tried one of them things but it made the water pump keep switching on and off as it reduced the flow and the pressure switch kept switching on and off , well didn't think think this was good for the pump or pipe joints so gone back to the old one.

 

[Landy Andy]

You must have a different boiler to a Truma unit, and it sounds like it has a flow switch which stops heating flowing water???
Possibly try bypassing flow switch?

 

[pappajohn]

Im already showering by turning the water on an off between rinsing etc.

Yet you're still using 10 liters a minute.
I find that very hard to understand unless you are impervious to scalding water and are using no cold water at all.
Plus you must have a very powerful pump to deliver that quantity per minute

 

[The Wino]

Hi all,

I want to save water.
My standard shower uses around 10 litres per minute. I want to halve that.
I bought several eco shower heads, however when i turn the tap on, the gas for the water heater cuts out so i have only cold showers.
If i turn the kitchen tap on at the same time then the water stays hot, but its an obvious waste of water.

So is the gas cutting out because the pump I have is too strong, or does the heater also need a certain flow rate in order to heat the water. It has a couple of knobs, one to adjust the gas and another to adjust how hot the water is. Never really figured it out.

One idea i had if i cant get to the bottom of it is to recirculate half the water coming into the shower back into the water tank. Pic below, welcome your feedback on that idea as well.
View attachment 936940

Won't you end up with no cold water in the tank with that system and a very high gas usage for the amount of hot water you use? I think it would be a good idea to say a bit more about your water heater type in case anyone has a similar one. On most systems there's a tank of heated water which would behave differently

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